


Divergent Dreams

by Dailenna



Series: No Dream of Her Own [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Equality, Gen, Origin Story, Pre-Canon, equal-opportunity death, unlikely feminism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22250032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dailenna/pseuds/Dailenna
Summary: King Bradley had always been an unusual man - how he’d won Mrs Bradley’s heart, even she wasn’t totally sure sometimes – but whenever she questioned his decisions, she couldn’t help but find some glimmer of hope in even the weirdest of lines he pursued.
Relationships: King Bradley/Mrs. Bradley
Series: No Dream of Her Own [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608523
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	Divergent Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> This is set early in the Bradleys' marriage, perhaps around the time when King Bradley was a Colonel.

King Bradley had always been an unusual man - how he’d won Mrs Bradley’s heart, even she wasn’t totally sure sometimes – but whenever she questioned his decisions, she couldn’t help but find some glimmer of hope in even the weirdest of lines he pursued.

“Women – in the military?” she asked, mouth ajar at such a peculiar thought.

“Think of it, my dear,” he said over his cup of tea.

She buttered a slice of toast carelessly. “Oh, I am thinking of it. And I don’t see where you’re going with this except to have the whole country ready for battle. If all the women are also in the military, who is to be left at home?”

What an odd idea to be met with at the breakfast table. It was far too early in the morning to be contemplating these things, but Mr Bradley just met her disdain with a laugh.

“Oh, there will be plenty of people left at home. The tailors and the florists, the grocers and the mechanics. Not all men have joined the army just because the opportunity is available to them. Why not open it up to women as well? I don’t suspect they’ll all join at once.”

“But who will take care of their children, if women go off to the battlefield?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Mr Bradley shrugged with a carelessness that nettled her. “Their aunts, their grandmothers. Their neighbours. Or,” he said, leaning in conspiratorially, “even their fathers.”

Her mouth dropped open again, ready to say something but not entirely sure what.

“I’m sure a man could manage a child, given the practice,” Mr Bradley said through a grin, his eye twinkling.

“Oh, do you think you could?” she asked sardonically, raising her eyebrows. Children had been a frequent conversation point between them lately. They’d been married a reasonable enough length of time that children were no longer too scary to contemplate. A baby – just a little baby – with some lovely smiles and hugs to share. That’s all she wanted. But the idea of Mr Bradley staying at home to care for a little boy or girl while Mrs Bradley went off to the military offices was too much. Besides-

“I’m not sure you’d let me!” Mr Bradley roared in laughter.

Mrs Bradley finally allowed herself to smile in response. “You’re damn right. That’ll be my baby to care for.”

Mr Bradley patted her hand warmly. “But my dear, not all women are like you. Some might want a baby, or to work – or some may even want to be in the military. Who am I to keep a woman from doing her part for her country?”

She faltered. “But there are so many parts – why must a woman fight?”

“There are so many people. Why must every woman want to do her part the same way you do?”

He looked at her steadily as she contemplated this. She wondered how many women would take up the uniform if the choice was offered to them - not many, she thought, but that didn’t seem to be his argument. Having the choice of going into any aspect of society, she would still have chosen to be a wife and mother, but her childhood friend Lucy loved her role as a secretary, and Mrs Donaldson next door spent a few days a week sewing at a dressmaker’s shop. There were women out there somewhere who may take pride in being a soldier, and serving to protect their country.

Mr Bradley finally looked down, eye astutely on his plate as he mopped up the last of his eggs with his toast. “This is a country at war, my dear. We have avoided conscription for so long; we have a military made of men who choose to serve, who are eager to help their country.” The toast paused half-way to his mouth. “I don’t know how much longer we can sustain that. If there are women who would choose to serve, I would have them first. We will win the war either way – with women who choose, or the last remnants of men who are dragged in against their choice. I say we open it to the women first.” With that he popped the toast into his mouth, and looked up with a restrained smile.

Mrs Bradley took her husband’s empty plate and put it on her own. “I see.”

“’I see’?” he repeated.

She rose from the table, with the plates. “You’re an optimist.” A smile threatened to spill out onto her face.

Mr Bradley’s eyebrows rose, and he let out a guffaw. “An optimist!”

As she passed him to the kitchen she pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Don’t worry, darling, according to you we’ll win the war either way. I like your way better.”

Among his men King Bradley’s rough exterior could make him seem hard-hearted, but this was what she got to see: the compassionate man who would protect his nation however he could. It was buried, but she got to see it slip out.

Not long after King Bradley became a General, an important man with the ear of the Fuhrer, the Fuhrer announced the new policy allowing women to sign up. And as at first hundreds, then soon a thousand or more women across the country signed up, Mrs Bradley knew that it was her husband who had made it possible for these women to fight for their country. It wasn’t all of the women, as she had at first hyperbolised, but those who chose. Not many, but enough to bolster the ranks. Enough to put off conscription just a little longer, and to pour new blood into the fighting forces.

\--

A young girl found herself alone: estranged and orphaned, abandoned in an empty house that was falling apart. She could do anything. She could be a governess, or a clerk. She was young enough still that someone may consider taking her on as an apprentice to a trade. She was old enough almost to get married. With no guidance, and with no dream of her own, the range of possibilities were overwhelmingly endless.

The only dream before her was the one which she had given her back for. As her father’s student studied his master’s code, she could do little more than hope that his dream was enough. Alchemist, be thou for the people, she cried in her heart, repeating the words that her father had told her. He’d hated the military, ignoring his enlisted student’s dream – to protect those he could with his own hands – even when it echoed the same sentiment as his own vision. She gave what her father had given her to serve the people, and to protect them, simultaneously releasing herself from her father’s charge, and sneering at the arrogance that had kept him from others who shared his vision. Then with her duty discharged, she looked at the lonely world before her and asked herself what her own dream was.

It was a wonderful dream – to protect everyone with her own hands. The path had already been forged for her by a decade of women enlisting, and with a trail of hope to follow. With clean hands, she took up her gun and dared to dream of a world that she could protect.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came from a tumblr post I saw talking about how Amestris is fairly socially advanced for the early 1900s, with women in the military, but there are so few women in the military and a whole lot of them seem to be in fairly clerical non-fighting roles. 
> 
> If there are so few women in the ranks, it maybe it's a new thing - and so it would be implemented by King Bradley. Defs just a way to kill more people before the Promised Day, yes?


End file.
